Sintra – Dreamy Castles

Sintra – a city larger than Lisbon and with the most expensive real estate in the country is set in the Sintra mountain (hills actually) just north of Lisbon.

It also has a Whole lot of castles. Castles , of every shapes and size imaginable and even unimaginable. So much so that even Madonna thought to buy one here 🤣

So off we went to see what the fuss was all about.

And….. I hear you ask.

And indeed – What a day

Where do I begin? (Didn’t Frank Sinatra day something like that – perhaps he had Sintra in mind 🤣)

Maybe with the second place we visited : Palace of Pena

I quote “this palace is the finest example of nineteen century Portuguese Romanticism….. they (the castle and gardens) constitute the most important part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra’s World Heritage site “ I unquote 😉

How do I begin?

A monastery (12 century) converted into a royal summer palace by King Ferdinand II beginning in 1838 and completed roughly some 12 years later.

How do I describe what I found?

I must confess – totally conflicted 😐

Ferdinand’s folly?

Fun in the summer?

Fantastic dreams?

Or just a case of ‘over the top’

A mishmash of styles,

A hodgepodge of colour

A chaotic combination of cultures

One man’s indulgence – or perhaps not – I am still trying to get my head around the place – suffice to say a bit of this and a bit of that and everything in between.

And still it was amazing, interesting and challenging

And in case our senses were not overwhelmed already we went to another castle the Quinta da Regaleira where we got totally lost trying to find the famous finished well which should have taken us underground to the lake. And may I add, we were not the only ones 🤣 we encountered at least 12 people doing the same and at the end felt like the pied piper. For some reason my look of knowledge 🤣🤣 found me leading the way to nowhere with several groups blindly following!!!!

and then of course there was our first castle – the Moorish one (my favourite – perhaps a blog one day) and before that there was …. can I even remember ?

Oh and the setting of the sun over that Atlantic at the most western tip of the European continent. Next stop – New York 😄

( we were not alone as you can see 😉 but no one fell off the cliff today which was a relief))

And then there was the famous Santini ice cream and did I tell you about the Belem pastry to die for?

Or the night in a local bar Fado singing and far too much wine ?

No of course I haven’t because the ‘day’ ended at midnight and another day begins with new adventures, so interesting as they all were, a few photos will have to suffice till I find more hours in a day